Kategorie: ‘Announcements’
fIT Courses: IT Knowledge Made Easy
Source: Own illustration
Whether you’ve just started your first semester or are already in the middle of your studies, IT skills are a real advantage in any subject area. This is exactly where the fIT courses at RWTH come in: they offer you the opportunity to learn how to use important programs or refresh your existing knowledge. Whether Excel, MATLAB, or Python – the free training courses will get you ready for your studies, research, and beyond.
KI:connect.nrw – On the Path to 350,000 Users
Source: Own Illustration
In our first post, we introduced the launch of the KI:connect.nrw project. The aim of the project is to provide universities in NRW with a privacy-compliant and customizable way of using generative AI via the central webinterface of KI:connect. In the meantime, there has been significant progress: The following five universities are now successfully connected and are actively using KI:connect:
- FernUniversität in Hagen
- Fachhochschule Aachen
- Hochschule Ruhr West
- RWTH Aachen University
- Technische Hochschule Köln
This means that KI:connect is now available to more than 170,000 students and staff in the fields of study, teaching, and research.
RWTH Adminrunde: Secure exchange – Mailing list
Source: Own Illustration
Central IT provision only works with good communication and by exchanging information with local IT managers at the institutions – and this is exactly what the RWTH Admin Round Table is for. For over 14 years, it has provided a platform for administrators and IT enthusiasts to exchange information on current university-related IT topics throughout RWTH. The round table is organised by a dedicated team of five from various institutions and the IT Center.
Technical Background to the X-Win Conversion
Source: Own Illustration
On June 10, 2025, we successfully converted RWTH’s network connection to the German science network (X-WiN) to a new generation of routers. You can also read more information in the blog post. These important components of the network infrastructure were replaced with more powerful and energy-efficient devices. In this article, we take a look behind the scenes of the technical changeover: Why was it necessary? What was replaced? How did the complex conversion actually work?
Team UX at the IT Center
Source: Own Illustration
In this series, the IT Center’s UX team reports on its work. When developing interactive systems such as websites and apps, not only HTML, CSS and JavaScript play a decisive role, but also usability and user experience. Put simply, this refers to the question of whether a system supports its users in achieving their goals effectively, efficiently and satisfactorily and what perceptions and reactions result from using a system.
At the IT Center, we also focus on the usability and user experience of our systems. User tests such as the annual satisfaction survey on the RWTHapp are a key tool that we use for this. You can find this year’s results here.
DNS at RWTH Aachen Part 2: Security in the DNS – Protection Against Misuse
Source: Own Illustration
In the first part of this blog series on the Domain Name System (DNS), we explained various technical details. The very fact that DNS servers are consulted to convert computer names into IP addresses means that the system plays a very central role in the functioning of the Internet.
New Root Certificate for eduroam & RWTH-Institutes
Source: Own Illustration
On September 9, 2025, the root certificate for the RADIUS server of eduroam and RWTH-institutes will be changed to the new DFN Community Root CA 2022 as part of a regular security measure. From this point on, only the new certificate will work – it will no longer be possible to use the old one. To ensure that you remain connected securely and without problems after September 9, you should update your WLAN configuration in good time.
Datastorage.nrw: How to Submit Storage Space Requests Using Coscine-JARDS
Source: Own Illustration
DataStorage.nrw offers you secure storage space for your research data – for all DH.NRW universities. Access is via the FDM platform Coscine, which provides different types of resources. You can use these either with or without deposited storage space. In this blog post, we explain how you can easily apply for storage space via Coscine-JARDS.
Sciebo Successfully Migrated to Nextcloud
Source: sciebo
The migration of RWTH Aachen University’s sciebo instance from ownCloud to Nextcloud has been successfully completed. We are pleased to announce how the Nextcloud client can be used and what new features are associated with this migration.
The New RWTH Software Shop
Source: Own Illustration
To make the provision of software to RWTH members even more efficient, transparent, and user-friendly, the IT Center is providing a new central solution: the RWTH Software Shop. This is aimed at both institutions and employees as well as students at RWTH Aachen University and combines a wide range of software offerings on a single platform. The new shop will be available to all target groups from July 29, 2025. Centralized access not only simplifies the ordering process, but also improves product support and usage.
